August 28, 2011 Americas Award Winner Pam Muñoz Ryan to Discuss Her Prize-Winning Book

Author Pam Muñoz Ryan will discuss and sign her award-winning book “The Dreamer,” illustrated by Peter Sis (Scholastic, 2010), at the Library of Congress on Friday, Sept. 16, at noon in the West Dining Room, located on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event, co-sponsored by the Center for the Book and the Hispanic Division, is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

On the following day, the Americas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature will be awarded to Muñoz Ryan and Sis for “The Dreamer” and to author Willie Perdomo and illustrator Bryan Collier for “Clemente!” (Holt, 2010).

The ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17, in the Mumford Room, located on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building. This event is also free and open to the public. The Center for the Book is co-sponsoring this program with the Hispanic Division and the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).

The Americas Award is sponsored by the Consortium of Latin American Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. The award recognizes outstanding U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore or selected nonfiction published in the previous year. The work must “authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean or Latinos in the United States.” More information about the Americas Award and CLASP can be found at www4.uwm.edu/clacs/aa/index.cfm External.

Pam Muñoz Ryan has written more than 30 books for young people, including the award-winning “Esperanza Rising,” “Riding Freedom” and “Paint the Wind.” She is the National Education Association’s recipient of the Civil and Human Rights Award, the Virginia Hamilton Award for Multicultural Literature and a two-time winner of the Willa Cather Literary Award. Muñoz Ryan was a presenter at the Library’s National Book Festival in 2003.

Willie Perdomo is the author of “Where a Nickel Costs a Dime” and “Smoking Lovely,” which received a PEN America Beyond Margins Award. He has also been published in The New York Times Magazine, and his children's book “Visiting Langston” received a Coretta Scott King Honor. He is currently artist-in-residence at Workspace of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Since its creation by Congress in 1977 to “stimulate public interest in books and reading,” the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress (www.Read.gov/cfb/) has become a major national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages, nationally and internationally. The center provides leadership for 52 affiliated state centers for the book (including the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and nonprofit reading-promotion partners and plays a key role in the Library’s annual National Book Festival. It also oversees the Library’s Read.gov website and administers the Library’s Young Readers Center.

The Hispanic Division, established in 1939, is the Library’s center for the study of the cultures and societies of Latin America, the Caribbean, the Iberian Peninsula, Latinos in the United States, and other areas with significant Spanish or Portuguese influence. For information on Hispanic resources and programs visit www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/.